Detroit Free Press columnist

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Memorial Day weekend began inauspiciously for Michigan Republicans when Secretary of State Ruth Johnson called her old state legislative colleague, Thaddeus McCotter, last Friday afternoon to deliver some shocking news:

McCotter, a fifth-term congressman from Livonia, was unlikely to appear on his party's Aug. 7 primary ballot.

The hurdle an incumbent member of Congress must clear to qualify for the primary is not a high one; all that was required of McCotter was to turn in nominating petitions signed by 1,000 voters in his 11th Congressional District.

Two college interns stationed outside a half-dozen Lincoln Day dinners might have been able to pull it off. But somehow, McCotter's campaign had fumbled the ball.

A cursory examination by state election officials had concluded that nearly four out of every five signatures McCotter had submitted were invalid. With the May 15 deadline for nominating petitions well past, the GOP's options were limited.

McCotter, or another well-known Republican, could still mount an expensive write-in campaign. But by Friday evening, it was starting to dawn on party leaders that the only candidate whose name would actually appear on the Republican ballot was Kerry Bentivolio, a 60-year-old tea party zealot who seemed more interested in launching criminal investigations of incumbents in both parties than in doing GOP Speaker John Boehner's bidding in the U.S. House.

"We are certain to control this seat," Friendeway said. "We're confident in that."

The fix is in

Friendeway belongs to the chattering classes for whom denial is a way of life, but in this instance his confidence was well-grounded. Like a gambler who knows the fight he's wagering on already has been fixed, Friendeway figures the 11th District was a lock for any Republican palooka who managed to climb in the ring.

To appreciate his confidence, you have to understand with what undisguised contempt for the democratic process Michigan's GOP legislators undertook to craft new boundaries for what they envisioned as McCotter's personal sinecure.

The newly configured 11th is one of three grotesquely misshapen congressional districts whose boundaries lie within a few hundred yards of U.S. Rep. Garry Peters' home in Bloomfield Township.

Republicans have been out for Peters' scalp ever since 2008, when the Pontiac-born Democrat had the effrontery to evict longtime incumbent Joe Knollenberg from a seat Republicans had owned for generations.

The GOP lawmakers who took control of the state Legislature in 2010 exploited their domination of the reapportionment process to eviscerate Peters' old 9th Congressional District, dumping most of its Democratic voters into two other districts already dominated by Democrats.

Peters, whose home was looped into the district historically represented by Democratic Rep. Sander Levin, opted to run instead in the nearby 14th, a serpentine monstrosity that wends its way from Grosse Pointe Park to Pontiac.

That left McCotter virtually unchallenged in his equally maze-like 11th District, which traversed the tenuous land bridge of Lake Angelus (pop. 290) to encompass the reliably Republican enclaves of Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills.

Adios, swing district

The bottom line is that a closely divided swing district whose independent voters gave Barack Obama a 56-43 margin over John McCain four years ago now boasts an overwhelmingly Republican base.

If the newly configured 11th were an animal, it would be a lapdog primping on the GOP candidate's lap. If it were a human being, it would be one of the GOP's bright young election data analysts flipping off Democrat Peters and his erstwhile constituents.

Since the new congressional districts were adopted last year, one of my more sadistic amusements has been informing Peters enthusiasts in my moderate Birmingham neighborhood that McCotter would soon be representing them in Congress, whether they liked it or not.

Until this past weekend, when McCotter's qualifying misfortunes became front-page news, practically everyone assumed I was making it up.

Now we'll see whether the somewhat obscure Democratic challenger, Dr. Syed Taj, can exploit the confusion in the Republican camp.

Just a week ago, many Democrats were indifferent to the primary contest between Taj and William Roberts, a disciple of conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, on the theory that either man would be no match for the incumbent McCotter.

Now the prospect that the GOP could field its own not-ready-for-prime-time neophyte has sparked new interest in Taj, the closest thing the Democrats have to an establishment candidate.

But in a district drawn to give any Republican nominee a 10-point head start, the name of the contestants may still matter less than the tilt of the playing field.

BRIAN DICKERSON is the Free Press' deputy editorial page editor. Contact him at 313-222-6584 or bdickerson@freepress.com